It is well known in the art to protect a house, building or other structure from a fire hazard by establishing a connection between the electrical system in the particular edifice and ground. In this manner, the edifice is protected from stray current, short circuits or similar potentially dangerous situations. One particularly effective manner of connecting the electrical system to ground will utilize the employment of a metallic water or similar pipe as the ground connection.
Typical prior art systems and methods for connecting an electrical system to a metallic pipe are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,864,292; 1,897,186; 1,899,309 all issued to Buchanan; U.S. Pat. No. 1,793,911 issued to Dann and U.S. Pat. No. 2,156,965 issued to Borden. The patent to Borden describes a ground fitting for connecting a ground wire to a waterpipe or other earth electrode. A body member 17 and a ground clamp are provided to connect the ground wire either in parallel to the waterpipe or transverse to the waterpipe. The patent to Dann discusses a ground fitting for an electrical system including a conduit-supporting member provided with a socket adapted to receive one end of a conduit, a clamp adapted to grip a waterpipe or other grounding medium, and a means for pivotally connecting the conduit-supporting member and the clamp together. The patents to Buchanan describe a ground fitting consisting of two members, one of which is anchored to an electrical conduit, and the other of which is clamped to a grounded pipe. Particularly with respect to Buchanan '186, it is noted that these two members can be assembled into a predetermined or limited number of angular positions with respect to one another.
However, it is noted that these prior art references do not utilize a compression connector, housing an electrical cable to be grounded. Additionally, none of these references show a system in which mounting pads are provided directly on the compression connector and an arcuate seat used to connect one or more U-shaped clamping bolts around a metallic pipe in order to allow the electrical cable to be provided at different angles with respect to the metallic pipe.